<< Background >>As stated into the ECEC Council Recommendation, early childhood education and care provision needs to be part of an integrated child-rights based package of policy measures to improve outcomes for children and break intergenerational cycles of disadvantage. In line with this aim, LISTEN want to promote access on ECEC school and inclusive opportunities at local and EU level helping to address the barriers faced by these people and contributing to creating and inclusive society and environments that foster equity and equality and that are responsive to the needs of the wider community. LISTEN want to implement bridge actions to promote an open dialogue between the school, the civil society and marginalised families, creating tools to restore the synergies lost during the tragic period of the first outbreaks in the EU and providing safe spaces for all to build a more heterogeneous and peaceful community of people who live in the same places. ECEC schools will be facilitated to collaborate with the civil society, represented by volunteers and will become the meeting point for the whole local community, contributing to play an essential role in learning to live together in heterogeneous societies and strengthening social cohesion and inclusion of disadvantaged families, with a special focus on social-emotional learning of these children that can learn easily how to be empathic as well as learn about their rights, equality, tolerance and diversity. LISTEN project will implement actions to support ECEC system to facilitate access to ECEC school to disadvantaged children, creating tailored made actions to improve high-quality of the EU systems (PR1&PR2) and providing policy recommendations (PR3) based on +7 different local communities and in 6 different ECEC systems. At last, using a g-local and bottom-up strategy developed in close collaboration with local and EU stakeholders, LISTEN will contribute day by day to break the circle of disadvantage and contribute to promote innovative reforms for the ECEC systems in EU.<< Objectives >>LISTEN project aims to support an early childhood education and care provision of good quality for all in the EU as highlighted by the EC in the European Pillar of Social Rights, its Action Plan (2017-2018) and the new EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child and the European Child Guarantee (2020-2021). The impact of a high-quality ECEC has a multiple positive effects by contributing to better include parents in the civil society, in the labour market and by achieving more gender equality. An inclusive ECEC system is crucial to address inequality and social exclusion of families, especially in that countries where ECEC schools aren’t supported by public institutions. Moreover, ECEC systems have to be more supported with new and more innovative practices children—based and targeted to inclusive approaches. A crucial aspect is the professionalization of the staff involved and a new design of services that should be child-centred in synergies with educators. Training opportunities and new methods have to be tested and included in the learning pathway of ECEC staff that needs complex knowledge, skills and competences as well as a deep understanding of child development, especially in situation that involves children with fewer opportunities. A high-level preparation of the staff and higher quality staff-child interactions have a positive and strong impact on a better quality of the ECEC and better developmental outcomes for children. For this reason, project’s objectives are to: -Develop a high-quality early-childhood education and care model promoting intergenerational solidarity approach method that involves actively local communities;-Increase competence development and professionalization of ECEC staff, teachers and educators, in providing innovative ECEC using intergenerational solidarity approach for social inclusion of children with migrant/socio-economic disadvantaged backgrounds; Promote solidarity initiative and innovative learning environments using formal and non-formal methodologies to increase dialogue and cooperation among key stakeholders and actors at local, national and EU level.<< Implementation >>LISTEN project plans to implement: - An open curriculum with online training modules developed for teachers and co-created with educators that supports their skill-building and fosters cognitive, language and social development of disadvantaged children to be integrated in ECEC schools. This activity will involve +120 ECEC staff which will be trained in blended version on innovative ECEC approaches and how to include in their teaching practices; - Local activities for parents to support parenting and improve the quality of the impact of child’s growth inside the project and after;- a cycle of activities (+4 months) engaging in social integration actions +300 pupils (at least 125 with fewer opportunities) based on the intergenerational solidarity approach and implemented in collaboration with the civil society represented by volunteers; - a cycle of small-size laboratories and workshops as well as events in the local communities in collaboration with local NGOs (+50 subjects involved in the project) to facilitate bridge activities and create inclusive spaces in which schools are in the centre of a process that led to integration of children, especially those have disadvantaged backgrounds. The overall activities are designed to increase synergies between key actors for the healthy growth of children to fight marginalization and break the circle of disadvantage as well as restore the relation at local level of the individuals after the outbreak of the last year. Pursuing the promotion of high-quality early childhood education and care in EU, we contribute to build healthier and integrated new generations in the future.<< Results >>LISTEN project will produce the following results: - new innovative tools to stimulate innovation in ECEC and targeted to teachers (one online training curriculum), to children (activity kit to interact with volunteers and learn more about the local community in which they live), to volunteer (tools to share the intangible results and lessons learnt through the life with the new generations), to families (activities to provide new tools to feel more inclusive in the local community and purse a positive attitude for the future) and to the civil society (guidelines to build common, safe and inclusive spaces in which children are central and can be the fuel of the integration); -Increase open dialogue and interactions between the wider ECEC school communities and the civil society through solidarity actions (+ 25 inclusive informal meetings and actions) in the learning process, including parents and decision makers and in raising awareness and interest in ECEC high-quality system and approaches to support children in their development.-Increase synergies between key actors for the healthy growth of children to fight marginalization and break the circle of disadvantage. - Policy recommendations to support quality framework in early childhood education and care systems and propose more comprehensive and consistent approaches to reforms. - Increase participation of the society in the promotion of high-quality early childhood education and care in EU following the European Social Rights Pillar and introducing innovative approaches based on an exchange between old and new generations.

Overall project goal is increasing parental competences by establishing a more comprehensive “from expecting to growing” model of parent-support grounded on the principles of informed decision-making and positive parenting, educating and supporting parents from pregnancy through the first three years of parenting. This idea and need came from parents, participants and users, of continuous partners’ activities and outputs and from a previous Erasmus+ project for expecting parents 3P+. Namely, parents from partners countries (Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic and Spain), come from similar cultural backgrounds: (1) they have mostly grown up with Mediterranean and Central European culture which traditionally relies on authoritarianism as parenting model that have been passed on from generations of parents and include physical and verbal punishment of children which is still largely considered as acceptable and legitimate; (2) they became parents at a time of ever-expanding ideas, approaches, tools, technology and media who encourage myth of two mutually exclusive child-rearing methods (authoritarian and permissive), as there is no choice between them; and in a sea of conflicting advice parents became susceptible to unreliable information and/or distrustful of the changes that have taken place in parenting;(3) parents say they are confused, overwhelmed and feel they need to raise their competences in a safe environment; they also feel need for higher levels of media and digital literacy needs and systematic promotion of parenting skills for the new, digital age. Parents form their biases and opinions about parenting before their child is born and therefore it is important to begin working with them as soon as they are interested in getting messages about parenting . Getting parents “where they are” is essential – and modern parents of young children are on mobile devices and in communities.Therefore, project has four specific objectives: (1) to create innovative, evidence-based curricula on postpartum and parenting(2) to train a cohort of educators who will locally deliver high-quality, modern parental education and support in childbirth, postpartum and parenting(3) to provide parents with information and education using various media and methods of delivery with the goal of reaching dislocated and under-served areas and social groups(4) to increase the partner organizations' competencies and skills in providing adult education and implementing international projects. Results of the project will be (1) two innovative, evidence-based curricula on Postpartum and Growing (0-3) in 6 languages; (2) 25 new educators from 4 countries trained to provide childbirth education/support to expectant parents and at least 40 educators from 5 countries trained to provide postpartum and parenting education/support; (3) created and disseminated “Growing 0-3” and “Expecting 2.0” mobile applications for parents in 6 languages; (4) at least 40 education/support groups for parents organized locally; (5) at least 4 in house experts per organization increased their competencies on curriculum and adult education development and implementation and at least 5 to 20 educators per organization (min. 65 in total) trained to deliver education and support to parents, which at the end, results in increasing partners organization capacities.Curricula development and piloting will involve three levels of training in order to ensure quality: (1) experts coordination: staff experts learning and practicing together on curriculum and adult education development; (2) training of educators: experts train educators based on curricula and principles of adult education); (3) local (regional) learning for parents bring information to the project's end-users through newly formed education/support groups.The project will empower all its participants (parents, experts, educators, partners and stakeholders) and increase their competencies, knowledge and skills about maternity care, parenting and parents' needs. Main desired project impact from local through national till European level is (1) more informed parents which can make their own choices in maternity care and parenting based on solid, understandable information and advocate for their own needs ultimately having the pregnancy, birth, postpartum and parenting experience that is best for them and (2) change in parenting practices using positive parenting approach and decrease authoritarian practices that include physical punishment. Therefore, the project is expected to contribute to the process of modernization and raising the quality of life.The project has great sustainability potential because partners will keep using produced outputs in their work with parents, (future) educators, new target groups and new interested partners for collaboration because of high transferability potential of project outputs.